Data visualization is a general term that describes any effort to help people understand the significance of data by placing it in a visual context. Patterns, trends and correlations that might go undetected in text-based data can be exposed and recognized easier with data visualization software.
Today’s data visualization tools go beyond the standard charts and graphs used in Microsoft Excel spreadsheets, displaying data in more sophisticated ways such as infographics, dials and gauges, geographic maps, sparklines, heat maps, and detailed bar, pie and fever charts. The images may include interactive capabilities, enabling users to manipulate them or drill into the data for querying and analysis. Indicators designed to alert users when data has been updated or predefined conditions occur can also be included.
Why data visualization is important for any career
It’s hard to think of a professional industry that doesn’t benefit from making data more understandable. Every STEM field benefits from understanding data—and so do fields in government, finance, marketing, history, consumer goods, service industries, education, sports, and so on.
While we’ll always wax poetically about data visualization (you’re on the Tableau website, after all) there are practical, real-life applications that are undeniable. And, since visualization is so prolific, it’s also one of the most useful professional skills to develop. The better you can convey your points visually, whether in a dashboard or a slide deck, the better you can leverage that information.
The concept of the citizen data scientist is on the rise. Skill sets are changing to accommodate a data-driven world. It is increasingly valuable for professionals to be able to use data to make decisions and use visuals to tell stories of when data informs the who, what, when, where, and how. While traditional education typically draws a distinct line between creative storytelling and technical analysis, the modern professional world also values those who can cross between the two: data visualization sits right in the middle of analysis and visual storytelling.
Examples of data visualization in action
Of course, one of the best ways to understand data visualization is to see it. What a crazy concept!
With public data visualization galleries and data everywhere online, it can be overwhelming to know where to start. We’ve collected 10 of the best examples of data visualization of all time, with examples that map historical conquests, analyze film scripts, reveal hidden causes of mortality, and more.
Tableau’s own public gallery shows off loads of visualizations made with the free Tableau Public tool, we feature some common starter business dashboards as usable templates, and Viz of the Day collects some of the best community creations. Plus, there are tons of great blogs and books about data visualization containing excellent examples, explanations, and information about best practices.
Importance of data visualization
Data visualization has become the de facto standard for modern business intelligence (BI). The success of the two leading vendors in the BI space, Tableau and Qlik — both of which heavily emphasize visualization — has moved other vendors toward a more visual approach in their software. Virtually all BI software has strong data visualization functionality.
Data visualization tools have been important in democratizing data and analytics and making data-driven insights available to workers throughout an organization. They are typically easier to operate than traditional statistical analysis software or earlier versions of BI software. This has led to a rise in lines of business implementing data visualization tools on their own, without support from IT.
Data visualization software also plays an important role in big data and advanced analyticsprojects. As businesses accumulated massive troves of data during the early years of the big data trend, they needed a way to quickly and easily get an overview of their data. Visualization tools were a natural fit.
Visualization is central to advanced analytics for similar reasons. When a data scientist is writing advanced predictive analytics or machine learning algorithms, it becomes important to visualize the outputs to monitor results and ensure that models are performing as intended. This is because visualizations of complex algorithms are generally easier to interpret than numerical outputs.
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The different types of visualizations
When you think of data visualization, your first thought probably immediately goes to simple bar graphs or pie charts. While these may be an integral part of visualizing data and a common baseline for many data graphics, the right visualization must be paired with the right set of information. Simple graphs are only the tip of the iceberg. There’s a whole selection of visualization methods to present data in effective and interesting ways.
Common general types of data visualization:
Charts
Tables
Graphs
Maps
Infographics
Dashboards
More specific examples of methods to visualize data:
Area Chart
Bar Chart
Box-and-whisker Plots
Bubble Cloud
Bullet Graph
Cartogram
Circle View
Dot Distribution Map
Gantt Chart
Heat Map
Highlight Table
Histogram
Matrix
Network
Polar Area
Radial Tree
Scatter Plot (2D or 3D)
Streamgraph
Text Tables
Timeline
Treemap
Wedge Stack Graph
Word Cloud
And any mix-and-match combination in a dashboard!
Learn more about data visualizations (and how to create your own)
If you’re feeling inspired or want to learn more, there are tons of resources to tap into. Data visualization and data journalism are full of enthusiastic practitioners eager to share their tips, tricks, theory, and more.
Blogs about data visualization are a perfect place to start
See our list of great data visualization blogs full of examples, inspiration, and educational resources.
The experts who write books and teach classes about the theory behind data visualization also tend to keep blogs where they analyze the latest trends in the field and discuss new vizzes. Many will offer critique on modern graphics or write tutorials to create effective visualizations.
Others will collect many different data visualizations from around the web in order to highlight the most intriguing ones. Blogs are a great way to learn more about specific subsets of data visualization or to look for relatable inspiration from well-done projects.
Learn about historical examples and theory from books
While blogs can keep up with the changing field of data visualization, books focus on where the theory stays constant. Humans have been trying to present data in a visual form throughout our entire existence. One of the earlier books about data visualization, originally published in 1983, set the stage for data visualization to come and still remains relevant to this day.
More current books still deal with theory and techniques, offering up timeless examples and practical tips. Some even take completed projects and present the visual graphics in book-form as an archival display.
There are loads of free courses and paid training programs
There are plenty of great paid and free courses and resources on data visualization out there, including right here on the Simpliv website. There are videos, articles, and whitepapers for everyone from beginner to data rockstar. When it comes to third-party courses, however, we won’t provide specific suggestions in this article at this time.
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